Give Me Those Star Wars 14: Return of the Toys

November 25, 2016

Ryan Daly welcomes returning guest Andy Kapellusch to chat about the Power of the Force II wave of Star Wars action figures released between 1995 and 2000. Also, expectations for Rogue One and the casting of Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo anthology film.

7 responses to “Give Me Those Star Wars 14: Return of the Toys”

Great timing on this episode! I listened to it on my morning run, it was like SECRET ORIGINS all over again!

I sent away for the Bomar Monk action figure, which was connected to the POTF line, I believe. It was the last gasp of my childhood when it came to Star Wars action figure collecting. Like Andy, I was really turned off by the sculpts of the line–Steroid Luke and Ape Leia being the worst two offenders.

Andy had a couple of great turns of phrase this episode:

He said “Garage Sale” so it sounded like “Grodd Sale”, which is way more interesting a concept.

“That Sweet Purple Packaging” has to be the title of a book about Prince at some point.

“A Year of Scary Disappointments”–you said it, brother.

And like Andy, I peruse the SW aisle in Target pretty regularly. I have no intention of buying anything, but I still enjoy the process and its fun seeing little kids do what I did, forty years ago (i.e,, push people out of the way to get the figures I wanted).

I remember the POTF2 line well. I didn’t really buy too many, but I was subscribing to Tomart’s Action Figure Guide (which may have been Tomart’s Star Wars Guide, honestly), and there was a lot of coverage. Plus, I was seeing these on toy shelves while desperately hoping for more show-accurate Batman Animated figures.

POTF2 came out during toy companies’ EXTREME phase. This, Total Justice and yes, GI Joe: EXTREME! were pre-posed roid-raging monsters, partially inspired by McFarlane Toys success with Spawn. They are all pretty ridiculous looking now.

I got the blue-toothpaste Obi-Wan and Han Stormtrooper through the mail. I had a buddy who was desperately searching for the brown-vested Jedi Luke on the orange card (I think that’s right) and I found him one. I felt like I’d won the lottery, and it wasn’t even for me! Around this time, we witnessed a fight over POTF2 figures at the grand opening of a local Wal-Mart. Madness, madness I say!

Great episode! Andy makes me feel REALLY old, since I was in college when these hit, but his enthusiasm was infectious.

I’m about halfway through this episode right now and loving it! I was really into the POWER OF THE FORCE action figures. I didn’t buy a ton, but kept up with the news. Specifically, I was buying the figures that were not produced in the original run (like you mentioned, Grand Moff Tarkin, Garindan, Rebel Trooper, but also Wedge Antilles, and more). I would display the new characters side-by-side with my original Kenner figures. And yes, us fans referred to the early POWER OF THE FORCE figures as “Luke the Wrestler”.

Part of what fueled the return of the figures and the fan base around them was the announcement around 1995 that Lucas was going to finally make the prequels. That announcement rekindled Star Wars fandom like you couldn’t imagine. That’s about the time the toys started coming out again too.

Regarding SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE and Ryan’s and I’s aborted coverage .. Ryan said that “schedules conflicted”. And by that he means I kept begging to get started, re-read the book in anticipation, dug out my SHADOWS action figures and micro-machines, listened to the soundtrack regularly, and was getting ready to re-read the comics. So…. yeah, that never happened. Maybe I should hijack this show and do my own SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE episode sometime in 2017. Anyone interested in hearing that?